Why this Go Sober malarkey, behind the fun and banter and rivalry, actually matters

A long time ago. It's Christmas morning, but nobody's celebrating. The household is pretty frantic because one of its number, as her life nears its end, is really distressed. A phone call. A short time passes and two Macmillan Cancer Support nurses arrive. They know what to do. Every moment of watching someone you love suffer seems to last for about a year, but in reality, in quite a short time, she was calm and comfortable again.

There were some grim moments towards the end of my mother-in-law's life that the passing of more than 20 years has not dimmed that much. You never forget those who supported you during that time and the minor miracles they wrought every day. She died three days later, and the Macmillan team did everything they possibly could to make it all as peaceful as possible.

They'd been involved well before Christmas Day. We all knew how this illness was going to play out and they helped by talking to not just my mother-in-law, but to all of us too, about how we were feeling, suggesting things that might help us and being available when we needed them. We felt that they understood where we were at. Even after she died, they called in on us to see how we were.

I really don't know how on earth we would have coped without the Macmillan team. Even after all this time, writing this down has made my eyes prickle.

Everyone going through the mill with that brutal disease should have the support of these wonderful people. It should be said that it's not just about supporting those who are at the end their lives - they are there for all with Cancer and so many more people now are getting through it these days. I'm sure we all know someone who has been helped by Macmillan.

That is why, more than anything else, that I've been stoking the rivalry between Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael and Sheila Ritchie. Sure, they are both my friends and a month without alcohol is a real test for both of them and I wanted to help make it worth their while, but the cause was a real motivator. That between them, as I write this, they have raised a whisker from £8000 and are the top two in the UK is incredible. Is it too much to hope that they can get into five figures by the end of their quest. Alistair finishes tonight, but Sheila has another 3 days to go as she started late.

Earlier this week, they made exclusive pitches to Liberal Democrat Voice, which I reproduce here. It's payday today for many people. Please give what you can to either Sheila or Alistair. I'm not taking sides because I think they are both brilliant, although I want to see them both safely taking the top two spots.

And perhaps you will join me at 0:01 tomorrow in raising a glass alongside Carmichael in spirit (literally) if not actually with him in person.

Alistair Carmichael: this is a matter of confidence for the leadership

I have always thought of Lib Dem Voice as a virtual Lib Dem Conference, just without the Glee Club. I found myself musing about how I would persuade conference to support me in my Sober in October challenge. In fact, we all know that the best way to persuade conference of any proposition is to line all parliamentarians up behind the opposite one and then make it an issue of confidence for the leadership. I offer you, therefore the only speech that could swing things in my direction.

The text in square brackets explains what each sentence actually means.

In the best tradition of conference this speech would be delivered by some poor dupe identified by Matthew Hanney as being popular with activists.

Conference, I think it is fair to say that I speak for the entire parliamentary party today when I ask you to donate money to Sheila Ritchie's page.

[We have Farron locked in a cupboard somewhere] 

You have probably read the ridiculous press coverage saying that your support for Sheila is an issue of confidence for the leadership.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

[The press office have been briefing for the past two weeks now that the leader will resign if you vote against him] 

Of course, Alistair Carmichael is a close friend and a good colleague

[I can't stand the man and am delighted to have this chance to stick the boot in] 

This is not personal.

[This is personal] 

Your parliamentary colleagues feel that he has other responsibilities with which to concern himself

[It should have been me! Me, I tell you!!!!] 

We were delighted (if a little surprised) that he undertook this challenge.

[I am quite happy for you to think he is a total lush] 

We all know Sheila

[I think I spoke to her at the Torquay conference of 1993 but I can't be certain]

She is one of the party's characters.

[Everyone in the Scottish Party seems to be terrified of her] 

Malcolm Bruce holds her in the highest regard

[Malcolm Bruce is terrified of her] 

As a lawyer, her legal advice on the implementation of secret courts was invaluable.

[I just made that up] 

Whoever you donate to, the real winner will be Macmillan Cancer Support.

[Inadvertently, I may just have got something right] 

I realise that Gareth Epps wants to move a reference back but I don't think we need spend any time on that.

[This whole exercise has been a total waste of time] 

Thank you for listening, I look forward to the rest of the debate.

[Is the bar open yet?] 

You can donate to Alistair's page here,

Sheila Ritchie: I will do just about anything to beat him

This is all Caron Lindsay’s fault. There I was minding my own business when she tweeted about Alistair Carmichael’s Go Sober challenge. “Hysterical,” I thought.” Incredible,”   thought.” Hilarious!” But no, it was true. The rest is history.

The sponsorship both of us are raising will go to Macmillan Cancer Support. So the fact that, between us we’ve raised over £6000 is amazing. The fact that Alistair hasn’t had a dram for 29 days is utterly remarkable. The fact that I will do just about anything to beat him, is a given!

He’s raided the Parliamentary Party, the House of Lords, and he’s even had the kitty money off the Tory Whips.  MY donors are ordinary hardworking people.  I did snag a Labour Peer, but it was pure accident.

See, my problem is that this is a man who, single handedly, keeps the party afloat  with his sparkling wit and repartee at conference  financial appeals. Admittedly, he probably has a wee bit more help from the cratur there than he’s had this month. So I’m relying on you good Liberals to keep the playing field level. None of this “noblesse oblige” stuff.  He may THINK he’s a Party Grandee, now he’s Secretary of State, but he needs a) more money (his, not Macmillan’s) and b) more corpulence. Really.

I know fine that Alistair’s network is greater and richer than mine but I HATE being beaten. Give generously, and remember, just because he SAYS he’s the underdog, doesn’t make it so.

Does anyone not know someone helped by Macmillan nurses?  They were wonderful to my dad. And it seems to me that cancer is becoming hugely more prevalent. Rarely a day goes by without my hearing about someone it affects.  Some of you may have read the story my friend Kathy put on one of my Go Sober posts. The fact is, that in the UK, we are bloody lucky to have Macmillan. So dig a little deeper folks. Truth be told, at this point, I don't care which of us you give it to. 

But it would be nice to see Lib Dems in 1^st and 2^nd places, eh?

 You can donate to Sheila's page here. 

Former MP John Barrett's daughter Sarah to run 10k to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support

Everyone will be delighted that popular former Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West John Barrett is well on the road to recovery after suffering from Cancer last year. After surgery and 6 gruelling months of chemotherapy, he was in fine form as he chaired the Vince Cable Q and A in Edinburgh in July.

John's daughter Sarah Atsa is doing a 10k run next month to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support. who  have been great in the way they've supported John. Many of us will know how brilliant they are at giving superb information and support to the whole family, not just the person who's ill.

We would have been lost without them when my mother-in-law was ill. They even came out on Christmas Day when we needed them.

If you can, please support Sarah's fundraising effort here.

Former MP John Barrett speaks out against ESA assessments for Cancer patients

Regular readers will be aware of mine and George Potter's campaign against the Government's proposals to put Cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy through work capability assessments.

At the moment, if you have Cancer and are undergoing IV chemo, you don't have to undergo the assessments, but if you're on oral chemo, you do. Macmillan Cancer Support and others highlighted this discrepancy and the Government decided to make the system the same for both groups. Unfortunately, they've done it the wrong way round. Instead of extending the exemption to the people on oral chemo, they've taken it away from those on iv chemo.

Now, both types of treatment are pretty hardcore. Cancer cells respond only to the most heavy duty of toxins. Anyone undergoing chemo is unlikely to be able to work while they're having the treatment because of the nasty, debilitating, dramatic side effects which can range from ulcers to vomiting to exhaustion and just about everything in between.

Just after I launched the petition, John Barrett, our former MP for Edinburgh West contacted me and said that he supported what we were trying to do and said he was happy for us tell that to the world, or at least the small part of it which reads our blogs.

Many of us in Scotland knew at the time that John had just undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his colon and was waiting to hear whether he'd have to undergo chemotherapy himself. It turns out that he does and will be starting this next month. Two weeks ago, he told the Scotsman about what he'd been through and how he wanted to tell everyone to use the NHS bowel cancer screening kit and not leave it gathering dust.

John has now told the Edinburgh Evening News that he wants the Government to rethink its plans for ESA. After objections from Macmillan, they were already undertaking a further consultation which will hopefully lead to them issuing an automatic exemption to everyone while they are undergoing treatment for Cancer.

He said:

“I’m speaking to my former parliamentary colleagues to say when this comes up they need to stop it.

“Macmillan are the experts. We should listen to what they and other charities are saying.”

I was not encouraged by the response from the DWP spokeswoman, however. She said:

“However, we do believe that assuming work is not an option for all cancer sufferers is not the right way ahead.”

Let's be realistic here. Cancer sufferers in the middle of treatment are unlikely to be able to work. They have enough to do dealing with the effects of the treatment. A medical certificate from a GP saying they're undergoing Chemo or Radiotherapy at the moment is all that should be needed for them to claim ESA. Once that treatment has finished, then, ok, resume the normal assessment system, but for goodness sake leave them alone while the toxins are doing their thing.

It bothers me that failure to return an ATOS form on time could mean that people lose their benefits. If that deadline falls at the wrong time in the treatment cycle and someone's too ill to complete the form, they will get a nasty shock next benefit day and they shouldn't have to go through that stress, and the stress of having to sort it all out, when they are so sick.

We also know that ATOS make mistakes. There's every possibility that they could decide that someone in the midst of chemo is fit for work and make them lose their benefit. Appealing that takes a long time and is also very stressful - not to mention they'll be expected to show evidence of job hunting if they're put back onto Job Seekers' Allowance or lose their benefit completely.

Asking for an exemption is not about writing people off forever, it's about recognising the debilitating effects of Cancer treatment while it's happening. Hopefully most people, once their treatment is over, will be fit enough to resume work and get on with their lives. If you agree with us that Cancer patients undergoing Chemo or Radiotherapy should be automatically exempt from these extra assessments, please sign our petition here and if you're a Lib Dem member, write to Party President Tim Farron (tim.farron@libdems.org.uk) and tell him how you feel. I know he's already looking into this, but I want him to be able to go to Nick Clegg and say he's had thousands of e-mails from party members who want us to stop the Government's proposals.

 Can you do that today, please? Also please spread the word as widely as you can. I'm hoping that this should be winnable because there is literally no sense in wasting time and energy putting people through assessments when they're clearly too ill to work by the very nature of what's happening to them. It's the right thing to do.

Former Liberal Democrat MP John Barrett backs campaign to exempt all cancer patients from work assessments

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a text from John Barrett, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, yesterday morning as I was tootling round the supermarket. He wanted to let me know that he was "happy to support your campaign on chemotherapy proposals" and that I could put his support on my blog.

I wanted to leave yesterday to Joshua's appeal, but I'm really grateful to John. I know that he will also be advocating behind the scenes on this one as well.

Just to recap the situation, at the moment, if you are receiving intravenous chemo for Cancer you are automatically exempt from all assessments to see if you're fit for work that come along with claiming Employment and Support Allowance. However, if you are receiving oral chemo or radiotherapy, you have to go through them, even though your treatment can have just as horrendous side effects. Macmillan Cancer Support and others presented evidence to the Government to ask for all chemo patients to be exempt.

Unfortunately, the Government, while agreeing that there was a discrepancy, went the other way, and decided that all patients undergoing chemo should be assessed. This to me puts an unacceptable burden on people. Having hardcore poisons circulating in your system in near fatal quantities is more than enough for any one person to deal with at any one time. Having to deal with filling in complex forms from ATOS is just asking too much. Of course, if you miss the deadline for filling it in, you'll end up losing your benefit which could be a nightmare to sort out - and clearly impacts the most on those without family support or another income in the household.  The easiest thing would be to put everyone who files a certificate saying they are undergoing chemo for Cancer into the support group for the duration of their treatment and simply leave them alone.

Macmillan, perfectly understandably, are not happy with this. To its credit, the Government has suspended hte proposals and put them out for further consultation. What the petition George and I have set up aims to do is add weight to the case put forward by Macmillan. I don't want to put words into George's mouth, but I certainly believe it is the only humane option.

If you agree with George, John Barrett and hundreds of others, please sign here and share as widely as you can.

It's also good to see Party President Tim Farron say he's going to look into this. In response to George's article on Lib Dem Voice yesterday,  he said on Twitter last night:

It would be fabulous if he could come back and tell us that under no circumstances will Cancer patients undergoing chemo be required to undergo any work capability assessments.

Let's make sure Government doesn't put Cancer patients through stressful benefit assessments

Saturday nights at this time of year are usually pretty predictable - Strictly, X Factor, I'm a Celebrity, punctuated by the occasional glass of red wine. Last night the annual Race of Champions was also added into the mix and I watched excitedly as Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel claimed their fifth Nations Cup in succession for Germany.

While idly going through Facebook to see how my friends were doing, I came back down to earth with a sudden bump when I read this from Macmillan Cancer Support.

Now, I knew there had been issues with people recovering from Cancer being marked as fit for work with the iniquitous Work Capability Assessment. That was bad enough. I had rather naively assumed that those in active treatment would be spared such things. No, those taking oral chemotherapy or radiation could be assessed at any time. Those on intravenous chemotherapy were exempt. Macmillan and other organisations presented evidence to the Government that oral chemo and radiotherapy could be every bit as horrendous as iv chemo in the hope that the exemption would be extended to them.

Well, it appears that the Government have accepted that there must be equality in how the groups are treated, so both groups will be subjected to the assessment.

Most of us will know somebody who has been through Cancer treatment. It's pretty hardcore. With chemo, your body is assaulted with assorted heavy duty poisons at the maximum possible dose. It doesn't just find the Cancer cells and kill them, it damages everything else in its path and for most of the time you feel pretty bloody awful. There may, if you're lucky, be a few days in the cycle between treatments where you feel almost human, but as the treatment continues and the toxins in your body build up, this becomes less likely. In fact, how many times have you heard that someone's too sick to even get their next dose of chemo - they haven't recovered properly from the last one and it has to be postponed. The side effects of most Cancer treatments are deeply unpleasant, often dramatic and they take up every ounce of your energy.  The last thing you need is having to fight bureaucracy from the Department of Work and Pensions on pain of losing your benefits.

You have to submit medical certs every few weeks to claim ESA anyway. It is pretty simple to automatically put anyone whose certificate says "Cancer - continuing treatment" into the support group so that they are pretty much left alone and not hassled. That would be the obvious way to deal with this. But, no. Rather than extend the exemption to those on oral chemos etc, the Government is removing it from those on iv Chemo? That is so, so cruel. You miss a deadline cos you're too busy throwing up or sleeping and you end up losing your benefits. And when that happens, it can take a wee while to sort it all out. How do you feed yourself or heat your house in that circumstance. And if you lose your income based ESA, you end up losing Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and the like and it shouldn't, but you then have to deal with the Council as well as the DWP to sort it all out. And all the while your next chemo appointment beckons.

Now, the Government says, in its proposals that more people will end up in the support group.

That's as may be, but they'll be forced to get extra evidence and fill in extra forms when there is just no need. Not everyone has a family who can do all that for them. People literally fighting to stay alive should not be put through this.

While the Government's intention may be to put more in the support group, the method of getting them there is deeply flawed, cruel and a waste of time.

There will be a consultation starting this month so that they can think again. I think we need to concentrate the minds of Liberal Democrat ministers particularly and get them to use their influence to ensure that Cancer patients in active treatment are exempted from the rather icy and inaccurate grip of ATOS and their flawed Work Capability Assessments. We just can't have people struggling with brutal therapies put through them.

Last night young Mr Potter and I cooked up this petition asking the Government to withdraw its proposals and make sure that anyone going through this treatment should be exempted as a matter of course. Please circulate widely. Without much effort, it's already attracted a fair number of signatures - but please do what you can to draw attention to it and sign it yourself.

 I want our ministers to be absolutely sure that Liberal Democrat members in particular will not tolerate anything less than full exemption for Cancer patients going through treatment. The quick way to do that is for us all to write to Tim Farron, our Party President at tim.farron@libdems.org.uk.  He does take contact from members very seriously. You could tweet him as well @timfarron. He will take our concerns to our ministers quickly. Also get in touch with Jenny Willott MP (info@jennywillott.org.uk).

The Government has at least stopped what it was planning to do for the moment - so we mustn't miss this opportunity to push them in the right direction.

Supporting the World's Biggest Coffee Morning for MacMillan Cancer Support

I am a huge fan of Macmillan Cancer Support and have been since they helped us during my mother-in-law's final illness. They were there for the whole family and even came out on Christmas Day to get us through one of those horrific times that anyone who has gone through losing someone they love to Cancer will recognise. I honestly don't know how we would have coped without them.

Ever since, they've had my money at every opportunity except one. Their annual World's Biggest Coffee Morning is a big fundraiser,but they used to run it in association Nescafe. Our Toddler Group used to participate, but I used to insist we used a different brand.

One of the few things that I stick rigidly to is the Nestle boycott. I won't knowingly consume anything that company makes because I disagree with the way they market their artificial baby milk in developing countries. They continue to undermine breastfeeding in a way I find unacceptable. Baby Milk Action has all the information you need on this issue here.

I was pleased to see that they aren't associated with Nescafe any more, with Kenco being their new "coffee partner". So, for the first time in a long time,I'm off to support the World's Biggest Coffee Morning at the Livingston Station Wonem's Group event. It starts around now and Ishould be back in time to see first practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.